“My dream of owning and running a restaurant is coming true!” Lopez said on her Facebook page. “Can’t wait to host tons of parties, celebrations and form more Conga Lines.”

The Eastsider has contacted Lopez to find out more details about the Mexican restaurant, including when it will open.

The restaurant, which has been painted a bright shade “Purple Passion,” in the 1800 block of E. First Street is located about three blocks from Lopez’ theater. Casa Fina will fill the space once occupied by La Serenata de Garibaldi, which closed its original First Street location in January after 32 years in business.

9 comments

Depends on who sees you there.
I think you’ll be fine though bc the people who’d say your not welcomed most likely can’t afford to eat there. So ya know they won’t be there to harass you out of the restaurant.

That’s some irony, The rent on that place and the overhead to maintain and operate it won’t be cheap, thus pricing out the cash poor locals. They can’t pick and choose their clientele, but my guess is that it won’t be Gringo friendly. More than likely they will get the downtown lunch crowd: overpaid city workers and local government employees (same bunch that frequented La Seranata).
I liked Seranata but they didn’t have a proper liquor license, if the new owners are smart, they will get one. I’ll give it a shot, but not expecting much.

It’s not. Simply race-baiting politics designed to fuel the delusional fright of certain (but not most) “white people”. If there were real racial animosity ALL of L.A. would be “hostile” to whites. The problem is that they perceive a lack of silence and apathy to be “hostility”, which only fuels the distrust and adversarial tone of the dialogue. Those who can’t accept opposing opinions are doomed to be frightened and that demographic is certainly not welcome in our varrios. Btw, brace yourself for the simple use of that mundane and harmless term to be twisted and distorted into a sign of “hostility”.

If you look on the owners facebook page, its almost all about “white privilege” feminist and other social justice warrior posts.. I would suspect white people would not the same treatment as the locals if you now what I mean.

If that’s how you feel in advance of the actual experience, YOU certainly aren’t welcome. Otherwise, you’re invited and welcome. You can also toughen-up and consider that what you describe is the normal for Chicanos who venture out of our varrios to explore less-brown and/or gentrifying neighborhoods in our city, which doesn’t frighten or discourage the likes of me.

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